Tag Archives: Uncle Sam

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Don't Get Too Worked Up Over Insight Enterprises's Earnings

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By Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool

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Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company’s economic output. That’s because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings’ unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

Calling all cash flows

When you are trying to buy the market’s best stocks, it’s worth checking up on your companies’ free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That’s what we do with this series. Today, we’re checking in on Insight Enterprises (NAS: NSIT) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. FCF = free cash flow. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over the past 12 months, Insight Enterprises generated $37.3 million cash while it booked net income of $92.8 million. That means it turned 0.7% of its revenue into FCF. That doesn’t sound so great. FCF is less than net income. Ideally, we’d like to see the opposite.

All cash is not equal
Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn’t immune from nonsense, either. That’s why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don’t appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).

For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it’s ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Don't Get Too Worked Up Over Aaron's Earnings

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By Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company’s economic output. That’s because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings’ unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

Calling all cash flows

When you are trying to buy the market’s best stocks, it’s worth checking up on your companies’ free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That’s what we do with this series. Today, we’re checking in on Aaron’s (NYS: AAN) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. FCF = free cash flow. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over the past 12 months, Aaron’s burned $5.3 million cash while it booked net income of $173.0 million. That means it burned through all its revenue and more. That doesn’t sound so great. FCF is less than net income. Ideally, we’d like to see the opposite.

All cash is not equal
Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn’t immune from nonsense, either. That’s why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don’t appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).

For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it’s ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those shares.

So how …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Listen up ladies! Uncle Sam might want you too

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Tennnnnn-hut ladies!

The next time Uncle Sam comes calling, he’s probably going to want you, too.

The Obama administration recently decided to lift the ban on women in combat. Legal experts and military historians say that decision has opened the door for a change in the law that currently compels only men between age 18 and 25 to register for a military draft.

Never before have women been drafted into military service. Neither the White House nor Congress are in a hurry to make them register for a future call-up.

A draft would be enormously unpopular and adding women to the mix just isn’t a priority for a battle-weary country nearing the end of more than a decade of war. Yet, legally, there may be no other choice.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

Uncle Sam, MD: Healthcare Services Venture Capitalist

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By Scott Gottlieb, Contributor In the announcement below, the Obama Administration unveils today more grants to help states “innovate” the delivery of healthcare services. The Administration might be better off freeing states from burdensome regulations that prevent Governors from tailoring their Medicaid programs, or by allowing competitively designed insurance options on the new health plan exchanges that get started in 2014. That might inspire innovation from, as the President often says, “the bottom up instead of the top down.” But then, Washington would lose its leverage to decide what sort of innovation it likes and who wins and who loses. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

7 Ways To Make the Best Use of Your Tax Refund

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By Liz Davidson, Contributor Whether you’ve already filed your income tax or are about to, you may be looking forward to a nice big refund check from Uncle Sam. In fact, the average tax refund last year was about $2,700 which is more than a month’s worth of income for 2 out of 3 taxpayers. Before you start thinking about ways to spend it, you may want to consider using that refund to enhance your financial life going forward. Here are some options in a general order of priority: …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Making 20,000 Times Your Money on Heinz Call Options in 24 Hours Requires Inside Information

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By Robert Lenzner, Forbes Staff We are fascinated to find out the identity of the lucky tippee who knew Berkshire Hathaway was going to buy Heinz for $72.50 a share– and bought call options when the stock was $60 a share. He or they will discover that the SEC instantly spotted the unusual purchase of out-of-the-money calls on Heinz shares– and instantly froze the account held in Zurich, Switzerland— where the inside trader figured wrongly that Swiss banking law would protect him. No longer. Heinz common stock was selling at $60 a share when a Swiss account bought 2533 option calls to purchase Heinz shares at a price of $65 a share. The cost to the buyer was only $90,000. The very next morning the takeover of Heinz was made public; Berkshire and a Brazilian takeover firm, EGG, had agreed with Heinz to buy 100% of its shares at $72.50 a share– 20% higher than the $60 closing price the day before. You only make such a move if you know for a certainty a deal was in the works at a price greater than $65 a share, the call price for the options. In one day, the $90,000 purchase price rewarded the buyer with call options worth $1.8 million in the marketplace. What a bonanza– at least until the buyer learned the Feds in America were after him. Trust me; you don’t want the FBI after you. And it is a welcome signal that the market monitors at the SEC picked up on the obviously suspicious trade immediately. That should put a scare into the purveyors of “inside information.” that can trigger either a sharp upward spike or dramatic descent in price. Good on the SEC, who called “The timing, size and profitability of the defendants’ trades, as well as the lack of prior history of significant trading in Heinz in the account “makes these trades highly suspicious.” One locus of illegal activity in the stock market has truly been inordinately successful– going after the inside traders in ruthless fashion, ie using wire taps of phone conversations, often by traders who are helping the government to reduce or avoid jail time. Just in the past year or so, the SEC has brought 60 cases, and there have been guilty pleas or jail sentences for over 70 individuals– many of them hedge fund analysts and fund managers looking for an illegal “edge” in beating the markets and earning compensation of many millions a year. It is much easier to pin down criminal activity in Wall Street trading than in the fraudulent or exploitative practices of large banks before and during the financial meltdown of 2008. Just the spectacle of the Feds convicting a half dozen former employees of Steven Cohen‘s hedge fund empire is instructive and hopefully a warning to others. Uncle Sam is listening to your crooked conversations and tracking your crimes. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

The Sequestration-and $5 a Gallon Gasoline is a Downer for the Economy

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By Robert Lenzner, Forbes Staff There are not many happy about the coming March 1 automatic cuts in the budget. The exaggerated clamor has raised the specter of damaging our national defense, reducing free education for young children, the reduction of air safety officers and food inspectors, and other services we’ve grown accustomed to from Uncle Sam. But, where it cuts to the quick is the possible reduction in spending and therefore GDP of up to 0.5% this year, with the expectation of another 0.5% each year for the 9 years following. The positive payoff is the reduction of the federal budget deficit by 5% a year. This is called beng between a rock and a hard place. Add that cut to the renewed charge of a 2% payroll tax on individuals earning up to $114,000 a year– and you reduce GDP by another 0.6% according to estimates I’ve seen. That adds up to a combined drag on economic activity of possibly 1.1% at a time where the nation’s economy is growing modestly at a rate of 1.7% to 2.00%. When you subtract 1.1% from 2 % you get growth at best of 0.9%– definitely not enough to drive the unemployment rate down to the 6.5% level. Then, you factor in what is definitely a worrisome depressant to economic growth– the rise in the cost of a gallon of gasoline to $5.00 a gallon in some parts of the U.S.– has cut into consumer spending and usually a warning sign of a slowdown to come. In past cycles, when gasoline a gallon rose to $5.00 it usually signaled the sputtering of a recover. Or, motorists stopped driving quite as much, using less gasoline– as took place during the summer of 2008, when crude oil hit a peak of $147 a barrel. George Soros went short crude oil at $138 and long gold at $900 an ounce, a quite spectacular trade. And, then we had the financial crisis, the recession, the market meltdown. It’s a dangerous time for President Obama and for investors, who have enjoyed the rise back to very nearly the historic peak for the Dow of 14,100. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Don't Let a Crook Steal Your 2012 Tax Refund

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By Caroline Mayer, Contributor

I always dread February, partly for the weather but mostly because it’s tax-prep time. After 12 months of stuffing papers into a file folder, I now have to sift through them for Uncle Sam. It’s a task I like to put off as long as I can, even when I’ll be getting a refund. You may feel the same way. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Multi-billion Dollar Buybacks Can Spike Stock Prices

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By Robert Lenzner, Forbes Staff General Electric shares rallied sharply this week in the wake of a huge cash payoff from GE‘s sale of its remaining interest in NBC-Universal. One major reason was the expectation GE would use $10 billion to buyback and retire just under 5% of its total market capitalization. So did General Motors stock on the disclosure the auto giant was repurchasing 200 million shares of its stock from Uncle Sam for a cool $5.5 billion from the increased sale of cars. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Articles of Interest

Menendez Waded Into Top Donor's Fraud Case

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By Kevin Spak Sen. Robert Menendez twice tried to intervene on behalf of pal and major campaign donor Dr. Salomon Melgen in the optometrist’s ongoing battle with Medicare over alleged fraud, the Washington Post and New York Times report. Melgen is accused of overbilling Uncle Sam to the tune of $8.9 million—… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

Articles of Interest

Out Of Many: One

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By capblack

E Pluribus Unum SC Out of Many: One

American ancestry is drawn from the various nations of the Earth. As such, there’s no language or custom that conceivably couldn’t be found within our ranks.

E Pluribus Unum, or “out of many one”, is a saying lost in the modern tower of Babel that’s become our contemporary culture.

We have a common language, English, despite encroachments from the Southwest, which allows us to communicate.

This language has its own diversity in the form of regional dialects and slang. Still, we do have a national tongue and should resist efforts to demote it.

My American History Month alternative to Black (Liberal) History Month isn’t only focused upon American Blacks– it includes all Americans.

Balkanizing and ghettoizing ourselves, regardless of color, accomplishes little more than making the country easy pickings for communists who’ve stirred simmering discontent for generations.

The military addressed this issue by telling recruits their new pigmentation was “green” (or whatever the service color happened to be.)

In this way, individual characteristics became the central issue, as opposed to ethnicity. While not foolproof, the military became a race relations model civilians found beneficial.

This recession has united us (those with sense at least) in a misery the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression.

Skin tone, zip code, education, political party, and other labels succumb to the grinding need to either become allies or antagonists.

American History Month is a rallying cry to strengthen ties that bind, instead of carping about what various ethnic teams didn’t get from a high taxing Uncle Sam.

The Demo-crack party addicted all kinds of Americans in this desperate time. Those who still believe that traditional values and free markets are the answer need to join forces.

Let’s transition from lone ranger mindsets to becoming a seventh calvary riding to America’s rescue.

“Out of many: one!” is what we should keep in mind.

It doesn’t matter what ship your ancestors arrived in; we’re in the same boat now.

Happy American History Month!

Cap Black, The Hood Conservative
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Photo credit: Adamcha (Creative Commons)

Related posts:

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  2. A Tribute To Justice Clarence Thomas (Author’s note: Originally posted on Right Voice Media.) Happy American…

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Movies & TV

On the Set of G.I. Joe: Retaliation

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IGN was one of the media outlets lucky enough to visit the set of G.I. Joe: Retaliation way back in October 2011. With the sequel’s release now two months away, we can finally share with you a bit of what we saw. Our full set visit will run closer to the film’s March 29 opening.

The nature of the facility used for filming outside New Orleans must remain a secret (like Uncle Sam-level secret). A number of scenes for the sequel were shot on these converted soundstages, including a scene that will soon be seen by filmgoers as part of Paramount’s pre-release promotional push for G.I. Joe: Retaliation. There will be a four-minute preview of the film attached to worldwide IMAX, RealD and digital 3D showings of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters on January 24. The preview will run throughout the entirety of Hansel & Gretel’s theatrical engagement.

Continue reading…

Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Movies

News, Politics, Government

AIG Won't Sue America After All As Board Declines To Join Greenberg

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By Steve Schaefer, Forbes Staff Even the possibility that American Intl Group could join a shareholder lawsuit against the U.S. government sparked outrage Tuesday, and a day later it comes as little shock that the board of directors will not partner with former Chief Executive Maurice Greenberg in his case against Uncle Sam. The Wall Street […]
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

The Average Tax Top 20% Wealthy Will Pay In 2013 Is 28.1%

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By Robert Lenzner, Forbes Staff It’s that time of year to estimate what you owe Uncle Sam. Thankfully, the Tax Policy Center has adjusted its effective tax rates for 2013 under the new Obama-Boehner tax law. As we know the top 0.1%–some 300,000 households will be paying the top rate of 39.6%. The cutoff point is […]
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Microsoft: 3 Defense Agencies Commit To Office 2013, Win 8

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By Eric Savitz, Forbes Staff Microsoft received a vote of confidence from Uncle Sam, unveiling a new three-year agreement to provide the Army, the Air Force and the Defense Information Systems Agency with a broad array of the company’s software, including Office 2013, Sharepoint 2013 Enterprise and Windows 8. The company said the deal “provides all three […]
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Automobiles

Auctions: eBay Find of the Day: Your choice of new, unregistered mid-2000s supercars

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By Zach Bowman

Filed under: , , , , , ,

2005 Porsche Carrera GT

2004 Ferrari EnzoIf you didn’t quite find what you were hoping to see under the tree this year, maybe it’s about time you buy yourself something nice. Something like an unregistered 2005 Porsche Carrera GT. The car has never been titled and has just 83 miles on the odometer. With one owner since new, the Carrera GT is likely to be as nice an example as you’re likely to find outside of a museum. Porsche only built 340 of these machines back in 2005, and with a 610 horsepower V10 kicking at your spine, you can lap Santa’s sleigh next year. Currently, the Carrera GT has a buy it now price of $457,325 with around six days left on the auction.

Not flashy enough for your tastes? Stroll on down to West Hollywood and you’ll find a similarly untitled 2004 Ferrari Enzo up for grabs with a sticker of $1.8 million. Technically a Euro-spec car, the Enzo isn’t legal to operate on US roads, but could be modified to satisfy Uncle Sam with a little effort. The seller calls this car the “last brand-new Enzo in existence” and with 175 miles on the clock, that may be a true statement. You can head over to eBay Motors for a closer look if you’re feeling spendy.

eBay Find of the Day: Your choice of new, unregistered mid-2000s supercars originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: Autoblog

Automobiles

GM Buys Back Stock from U.S. Government, Chops Plans with Peugeot

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By Justin Berkowitz

2011 Chevrolet Volt

It would seem that at the “New” GM, nobody has gotten the memo about corporations going on autopilot the second two weeks of December. General Motors has made two major announcements in the past 48 hours, and both will have repercussions well beyond 2012.

GM’s $5.5-Billion Payment to Treasury Takes Government Stake Down to 19 Percent

How’s this for holiday shopping? For $5.5 billion, General Motors will buy (and then resell to private investors) 200 million of its shares currently in the hands of the U.S. government. When the transaction goes through, it’ll leave Uncle Sam holding just 19 percent of GM, from today’s 26-percent stake. Along with the news, the U.S. Treasury—which handles the government’s money here—said it would be selling off its remaining 300 million shares some time in the next 15 months.

By that point, roughly five years will have passed since the U.S. Treasury first began the GM bailout, which ultimately saw the government pump $49.5 billion into the company. The 61-percent ownership stake that the government took in 2009 dropped to 26 percent in 2010 when General Motors held an IPO and returned to the stock market.

There are two key insights here. First, GM is paying the government more for its shares than they are worth in public trading. That’s good for the taxpayer, but it means General Motors is intentionally taking a financial hit of about $400 million in order to reduce the government’s ownership of the company. Second, even though GM is overpaying for this particular deal, the back-of-the-napkin math will show the American taxpayer losing at least $10 billion on the deal. That’s just the difference between what the Treasury gave to GM and what it’s getting back directly, though, and doesn’t take into account any economic value of GM staying in business after 2008–2009.

Peugeot 208XY concept

Peugeot and GM Won’t Co-Develop Mid-Size-Car Platform Anymore

General Motors and PSA Peugeot Citroën are hashing out details of the general collaboration they agreed upon in October. Since that news, the two have ditched plans to develop a D-segment platform together, which would have underpinned future mid-size sedans like the Chevy Malibu and the Buick Regal. The Eurozone crisis has created a biblical-level armageddon for Peugeot, Renault, and Fiat, with all three seeing dismal sales in their core market of Western Europe. Citroën just confirmed that it’s going to put the gorgeous but salesproof C6 out to pasture, a symbol of the impossibility of selling large French sedans. PSA management probably sees no justification for investing in a new D-segment platform at this point.

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The latest iteration of the GM–PSA deal still will see them co-develop two MPVs—multipurpose vehicles, or mini-minivans like the Ford C-Max—for Europe, as well as a platform for future B-segment models about the size of the Chevy Sonic. Peugeot and GM also will work jointly on a family of small four-cylinder engines, which will be loosely based on current Peugeot engine architecture.

Try not to lose much sleep about the cancelation of the D-segment project. GM has far more expertise in designing that size of vehicle than Peugeot does, and it’s not as though the deal would have included styling work to bring Chevrolet designs back to the eponymous founder’s French roots.

Source: Car & Driver